


The Next Life

by Milani



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
Genre: Angst, Coma, Content Note - death, Content Note - referenced child abuse, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force-Sensitive Hux, M/M, This is not like the force bond works though, also a bit of humor, but I'm still sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-10 17:54:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13506756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milani/pseuds/Milani
Summary: After fighting and losing against Rey and Finn in battle, Kylo is unconscious and in a  coma. Hux has to watch over him. When he closes his eyes to let himself rest, he has to discover that they are connected through the force. Though being repelled by those circumstance at first, the bond between them grows stronger and stronger over the next weeks.





	1. The Dream That Was None

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so happy that you're here! It's my first Kylux fic and I'm really excited to share it.  
> Please make sure to read the tags before you continue. :)  
> And please excuse any mistakes - English isn't my first language and I think it shows.  
> You can find me on tumblr: force-choking.tumblr.com; I'm happy about new followers/people to follow and I'm always open to chat!  
> Have fun reading! <3

General Hux was a man who thought feelings of all kind were extremely unnecessary and just held people back. The thing with people like him was, that when they actually did feel something against their will, no matter what it was, they felt it stronger than other people. And that probably was why he disliked the man to his right so much. Because he made him feel things. Curiosity at first. Annoyance shortly after. And above all – much against Hux' own will – admiration.  
Looking over the unconscious body of Kylo Ren, he wondered how exactly Ren had ended up like that. When yesterday Snoke had told him to get him, Hux had to hold himself back from asking, "Do I really have to?". And when he had finally found Ren, laying in the snow wounded, Hux' dislike had grown even bigger. It was obvious how talented Kylo Ren was, but it was also painfully clear that all of his stupid emotions got in the way. Now that Hux thought about it, Ren had probably felt everything a human being could feel at once. It annoyed Hux. Then he got angry with himself for being annoyed. Which made him even angrier, just for being angry. He shook his head and cracked his knuckles. That was one of their main differences. Ren felt too much, and he felt too strongly.

After hearing of the more or less sucessful rescue of his apprentice, Snoke had commanded Hux to personally watch over Ren. And that was why he now sat in a chair, a notebook in his lap, next to Kylo Ren, surrounded only by white walls. 

Instead of writing anything down, Hux had stared at Kylo's face for the last ten minutes. He desperetaly told himself that it had nothing to do with his unfairly full, dark hair and his unique features, but more with the fact that it was quite enjoyable to be in the same room with him, without hearing him babble or watch him throwing a tantrum for once. Little did Hux know that the silence wouldn't last long.

He decided to let himself rest for a few minutes after the stressful events of the last hours. Surely Ren wouldn't wake up suddenly and run away. Hux stretched himself, yawned and closed his eyes. He found himself in the dark. It was strange for he couldn't describe why, but somehow he had full control over his body, so different than in the dreams he usually had. He turned around, went back and forth a few steps, tilted his head to both sides, looked down at his hands and only stopped when an all to familiar voice asked, "What are you doing here?"  
  
Startled, Hux looked up. He had to force himself, because he knew exactly to whom that voice belonged. His eyes met those of a very confused Kylo Ren.  
  
"This isn't...this is not happening," Hux stammered.  
  
\- "Obviously it is," Kylo said.  
  
"Please let this be a dream," Hux begged, not listening to what Kylo was saying.  
  
\- "What are you-"  
  
But Hux didn't hear the rest of what Kylo was asking. He stood up from his chair so fast that his notebook fell from his lap. Picking it up hastily, he noticed with a start that it didn't feel like he had been asleep for one second. "This is wrong. It has to be a mistake," he mumbled while storming out of the room, exactly knowing what the whole thing had meant.

  

The next day, Hux woke up early - if the state he had been in could in fact have been counted as "sleep" at all. Although he had tried not to think about it, his mind had wandered back and forth to the moment he had closed his eyes and seen Kylo Ren. Closing his eyes should have saved him from the sight of the person Hux would officially loved to have as an enemy. It definitely shouldn't have done _that_. He sat up in bed.  
_"I should have shot him when I had the chance"_ , he thought. But – unfortunately in this case – he always did what Snoke told him and what was best for the First Order. He stood up, slipped out of his clothes and went to the bathroom. His hope was that the cold water would make his thoughts as clear as the walls were in his chambers, but it didn't work. He told himself that it probably really was a mistake. The more Hux put on of his usual black clothes, the more convinced he was of that idea. He stretched himself, nodded, and left his chambers. He thought about how maybe he indeed had been asleep and how it had been a terrible nightmare, but since it had been such a short moment, it hadn't felt like sleep afterwards. Or - he nodded vaguely in the direction of some "Good mornings" - Ren had managed to do some terrible things with his mind. Playing some kind of tricks. Hux quickly dismissed the idea after he noticed that this would make Ren even more powerful than he liked to admit he already was.  
  
Hux sighed, took one last, deep breath and opened the door to the sick bay. It being so close to his chambers was the only reason he actually went there _before_ having breakfast. That, and the fact, that he couldn't wait to confirm for himself that the whole thing yesterday hadn't been what he feared it was.  
  
"Good morning, idiot," Hux said while sitting down next to Kylo's bed, "I am just here to prove that we are in fact not connected - especially not by the force - so I can lean back and enjoy the days without you. Take your time with staying in coma, there is no need to rush."  
  
He was feeling a lot better than the day before and closed his eyes in confidence.  
It ended abruptly when Kylo Ren appeared in front of him and said, "Thanks for the heart-warming words, General."  
  
\- "You're welcome. I really meant them." Hux desperetaly tried not to look at the smug face in front of him, but since they were basically in a black room with nothing to see, he gave up rather quickly.  
He just started to wonder if it was possible to punch the other man in the face, when Kylo opened his mouth again.  
"So," he said.  
  
\- "What 'so'?"  
  
"As horrific as the thought may be, this seems to be real - we are connected through the force." Kylo made a short pause as if he wanted to enjoy his next words.  
"The only good thing is," he continued, "this means you were wrong."  
  
\- "Thank you for pointing that out. I would never have noticed without your help," Hux snarled.  
  
Kylo showed a victorious smile that once again made Hux think about the possibility of punching him. Kylo either didn't notice these thoughts or simply ignored them.  
"I have to admit, I'm confused," he began, "I would never have guessed that you of all people would have something to do with the force."  
  
\- "I am deeply sorry for making you feel less special," Hux said, now looking directly at him.  
  
Kylo choose to ignore that too. "Did you know it?" he asked. "That you had it in you?"  
  
But Hux didn't reply. Opening his eyes in silence, he started to vanish before Kylo's, and was gone completely when he had left the room.

 

Hux didn't come back for the next days. He wasn't ready to fully accept what was going on, although he knew it was true – he was stuck in a force bond, and worst of all, it was with the man he despised so much.  
_"The only good thing is, this means you were wrong."_ The words rang in his head. Obviously he disagreed. To Hux, the only good thing was, that appearently they had to be physically close to one another for it to work. So he had ordered to let other people watch over Ren. Knowing all to well that it wasn't possible, he still had a slight hope that he wasn't the only one the force was playing with.  
But it was as it had to be – seven more days went by and nobody ran out of the sick bay screaming. Which meant two things – he was the only one with the force bond, and Kylo Ren was still in coma.  
  
On the tenth day of this state, he had enough of it. Aside from the fact that Snoke could find out any moment that Hux wasn't doing what he was told to do, he felt silly. There was no need for him to feel intimidated by this situation, let alone to be ashamed in front of Kylo Ren. So Hux sat next to him once again, and also once again watched him. As much as he had arranged himself with the circumstances, he still didn't like them. Which was why he had decided to blink as little as possible, so that his eyes wouldn't be closed too often. It didn't work out the way he wanted to.  
  
"I know you're here, don't bother pretending you're not," Kylo said.

Hux stood up from his chair at once. "Stop being in my head," he snapped.  
  
\- "I just started being there a few seconds ago. It's not my fault if you think about me all the damn time."  
  
The words had such a triumphant sound in them, that Hux sat back and closed his eyes so that he was able to look at Kylo with all the disgust he could possibly put onto his face.  
"What do you want?" he asked.  
  
"Nothing," Kylo said cooly. "I'm just surprised how good you seem to be at the whole force thing, that is all."  
  
Hux looked down at his feet. "I did not know that, and I am still not sure about it. I don't even remember how to move things, let alone the other stuff you can do," he said.  
  
\- "So you _did_ know about you being force-sensitive all the time?"  
  
"Yes, I did. But to be honest, I thought I had lost it," Hux said quietly, almost in a whisper.  
  
Kylo had to chuckle. "And why is that?"  
  
\- "Because I thought my father had it beaten out of me." Hux bit on his lower lip.  
When Kylo didn't reply, he looked up, half-expecting him to be gone. But he was still there, his eyes tracing over Hux, an unreadable look on his face.  
  
"I'm sorry to hear that," he finally said.  
  
\- "You are not, but thanks nonetheless."  
  
"I know how-"  
  
\- "Oh really?" Hux interrupted. "Have you ever felt like your family did not want you to exist?"  
  
"How do you think did I end up here?" Kylo asked back, but he didn't wait for a reply. Instead he turned around and disappeared slowly until Hux was left alone in the darkness.  
  
Hux opened his eyes and tried to collect his thoughts. "Ren?" he asked into the room. "Are you still there?"  
Only silence answered him. "Oh come on, at least tell me how you are controlling this while you are in a coma."  
But when he didn't get an audible answer to that either, Hux decided that he could leave just as well.

Maybe it was his imagination, but he could have sworn that while he opened the door, from somewhere a quiet voice eventually said, "I don't know. I just do."

 

 


	2. A Special Kind of Art

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo...chapter two it is! I'm so happy you came back to read this!  
> Once again, English isn't my first language, but I hope it's still readable. 
> 
> Also - you can still find me on tumblr: force-choking.tumblr.com I'd be so happy if you wanted to talk!
> 
> And if you like this chapter and are able to - comments make me incredibly happy!

"Did you miss me already?"

\- "Certainly not." Hux' day had begun only two hours ago and like so many days before, he already hated it. Just as he probably would never be a friend of Kylo Ren, sleep would never be a friend of _him_. Being greeted by a sneered "Ah, look who's here" just seconds after after he had opened the door to the sick bay hadn't been any helpful for his mood either.

"Then you came back again, because...?"  
  
\- "Because unfortunately Surpreme Leader Snoke seems to be a big admirer of you but not of me, which is why he told me to personally watch over you until you wake up again," Hux explained.

"How did you hide it?"  
  
\- "Hide what? My dislike for you? I did not, it would have been useless to even try."  
  
Kylo huffed. "Your relationship with the force of course."  
  
\- "Of course, yes." Hux put his head back and stared at what should have been a ceiling or a sky. Instead all he saw was darkness again. "It was not hard for me to hide it from him," he continued, "I mean I hid it from myself as much as I could."

Kylo waited for Hux to look straight ahead again, but when he didn't, he said, "But why-," he paused. "You should have told me about it. Why didn't you?“ Although he chose his words to sound as neutral as possible, there undoubtedly was a silent reproach in them.  
Hux closed his eyes in disbelief but didn't move his head.  
“You know that if you continue to hold your head like this the whole time, your neck will be as stiff as your usual appearance, right?“ Kylo asked.  
  
With a groan, Hux tilted his head back to the front and looked directly at Kylo. He chose to don't address the teasing any further and instead said, “If I am being completely honest with you, it never occured to me for one second to tell you about it. Why should I have done it?“

\- “I could have helped you,“ Kylo replied.

“You should help yourself first,“ Hux said. “What I mean is,“ he added when he noticed Kylo's eyes twichting, “I mean, I did not want to insult you, I just-“  
  
\- “I can't help or save myself. No one can,“ Kylo said and looked down at his feet. “But at least I could have tried to make it easier for you,“ he whispered.

Hux didn't know what to say or what to feel. All he knew was that Kylo Ren made him feel _something_ once again, but this time, he wasn't even sure that he disliked it. It just confused him. “You know,“ he began in an attempt to change the topic, “this is ridiculous. We are in a sick bay. You are lying there in coma and I am sitting next to you. But at the same time, we are standing here, talking to each other and there is nothing around us, except for darkness.“

\- “Oh, we can change that, you know?”  
  
“I already told you, Surpreme Leader Snoke makes me sit there, I mean here, and I don't think you will leave me be, so-”  
  
\- “The room I mean,” Kylo said flatly.

“The...what? How?” Hux sounded much more excited than he wanted to.

\- “Let me show you. Concentrate. Close your eyes and-”  
  
“I would rather not,” Hux interrupted.

\- “You had your eyes up on that non-existing ceiling and now you don't want to close them? What do you think could probably happen?”

“Who knows what you have planned in the last few minutes,” Hux said, the confusing feeling gone.

\- “While I feel flattered by you thinking I could have come up with a complete murder plan-” Kylo began, earning a look from Hux that gave him the impression that _he_ was the one about to get murdered. “I mean, fine. Just concentrate then,” he said.  
  
“On what?”  
  
\- “It's not like I'm not trying to tell you.”  
  
“Now that I think about it, I am really glad I did not tell you about me and the force, it would have been ter-”  
  
\- “The conference room,” Kylo said loudly. “Concentrate on the conference room. Picture it.”  
  
Hux succesfully fought the urge to protest or ask why, and did as he was told. And all of a sudden the darkness was gone – replaced by a long desk, twelve chairs, and large windows.  
“How did you- how did we do that?” Hux asked.  
  
\- “Who cares?” Kylo asked back.

It turned out that they both didn't care. The next day they met again at the conference room. The day after that they tried out different places they both had been to. Simple floors. Snoke's throne room ( _“Don't you dare sit on that, Ren!”_ ). But soon they became more courageous. They started to show each other locations only one of them had visited before. Spots in the middle of usually full cities, mountains, seas, plain fields – no matter what came to their mind, they visited it, shortly mentioning when they first had been to this place and then falling silent for most of the time. Walking around together and exploring this was an easy way to pass the time. And – as they both had to admit but didn't to each other, it was rather enjoyable.

Eventually, four weeks had passed from which Hux had spend most days sitting next to Kylo. This day, there had been so much other tasks waiting for him, and somehow everybody wanted to hear his opinion on this planning and that planning, that there simply hadn't been enough time for him to pay a visit. Laying in his bed now, Hux wondered if it felt as weird for Kylo as it unfortunately did for him. His question was answered only one moment later.  
  
“Hux?” Kylo's voice asked somewhere in the room.  
  
Hux immediately sat up straight in his bed. “I thought I was save from you when we are not in the same room. In the reality, I mean,” he said.  
  
\- “I guess our bond grew stronger over the last couple of days,” Kylo replied. “I'm bored. And you didn't visit me today.” He sounded offended.

“There were other things to do for me today, I just had no time,” Hux explained.  
  
\- “You have time now.”

Hux took a deep breath, concentrated himself on his surrounding and closed his eyes. “I can't believe I am really doing this,” he murmured when he still saw his bedroom but now with Kylo Ren in it, standing in front of the bed he was sitting on.  
  
\- “You're not wearing a shirt,” Kylo observed with some effort to keep his tone neutral, making Hux blush, “and you look terrible.”  
  
“Well thanks.”  
  
\- “Can't sleep, huh?”  
  
“It may be a funny coincidence, but a few minutes ago I actually tried to fall asleep, but then _somebody_ hindered me from doing it.” Hux crossed his legs and arms, and looked directly at Kylo, who either didn't get the hint or didn't _want_ to get it.  
  
\- “So this is your room, I see.” Kylo looked around, but there was basically not more to see than the bed, a lamp, some books and a drawer. “It's...”  
  
“Empty?”  
  
\- “Well yes. Mine's not any different.”  
  
“I guess that is the fate of people without a lot of happy childhood memories,” Hux said, sounding bitter.  
  
Kylo stopped his try to discover something exciting in Hux' room and looked back directly at him. “I really had no idea about your father,” he said.  
  
Hux just shrugged. “I made sure he died,” he said simply like it was nothing unusual.  
  
Kylo opened his mouth and closed it again. Looking down, he said, “I guess we have something more in common then.”  
  
\- “Seems like it,” Hux said, “but unlike me, you didn't want to kill your father.”  
  
“That's true,” Kylo replied quietly and turned his back to Hux. He paused for a moment and then said, “Apparently there are lot of things we haven't talked about yet.”

Hux hesitated for a moment, unsure what he should say. “Maybe we could talk about all these thing once you wake up.” The words had come out before he had really decided to let them. “If you want to,” he added.  
  
\- “Yeah, maybe then,” Kylo said quietly, not changing his position. Finally he looked back over his shoulder. “Can I sit next to you?” he asked, already starting to move towards the bed.  
  
“Errr, sure,” was all Hux managed to say before Kylo let himself fall down on the bed to sit cross-legged next to Hux, facing him. Hux turned his head to his left, meeting Kylo's eye. “And now?” he asked.  
  
\- “Give me your hand, I want to try something,” Kylo replied, stretching out his own left hand. “Please,” he added.  
  
And to both their surprise, Hux obeyed. He silently moved his whole position to sit directly opposite Kylo and lifted his right hand.

They both recoiled when their fingertips touched for the first time. Unspoken they knew what the other one was thinking and that it was the same. _It didn't feel real._ All this – the whole force bond – was still a secret to them they could not explain. They could sweep in and out of the dreamlike state they were in, without knowing how they did it. Change their surrounding to the most beautiful and complex places only one of them had ever seen in reality. It wasn't important to them to get _how_ it worked, just _that_ it worked. But this was different. The reason why the touch was so wrong was because they both had no idea how the actual skin of the other one really felt. No matter when and no matter how close they had ever been standing to each other, there was always some piece – a glove or a coat or something else – between them. And this time it was important that it didn't work out the way they wanted to, for they both could not explain why, but they hated it. The need to feel the touch of the other man was so strong that it silently had to be lying dormant inside of them the whole time. Sensing the other one's nervousness, they had no idea of where it came from, they tried to help one another to calm down.  
Suddenly and unexplained, and now again unimportant why it did, but it worked. As soon as they touched again they just knew it was right. Kylo was the first one to stop looking at their hands and move his gaze. He looked at Hux' face, who still stared at their fingers.  
  
“Hux-,” Kylo began.  
  
\- “Do me a favor and shut up for once, Ren.”  
  
Kylo couldn't hold back a smile. “Okay,” he whispered. Slowly he broke the touch, only to resume it on Hux' forearm. Hux let his hand fall down, and followed the movement of Kylo's fingers with his eyes. Up to his shoulder, drawing invisible lines over Hux' pale skin and the freckles on it. When he finally reached his cheek and stroked softly over it with his thumb, Hux looked directly in Kylo's eyes. He raised his hand again and mirrored what Kylo was doing. Together they painted a picture from which they had never known they wanted to see it. The only thing to hear was their breath, coming out a bit to fast and a bit too loud, although they both felt like they weren't breathing at all.

It was Kylo who couldn't bear the rest of distance between them any longer. Before he could take Hux' face in both of his hands, Hux sensed what was he about to do.  
“Don't,” he said.  
  
“I know,” Kylo replied and pulled back. “I know,” he repeated. The last thing Hux saw of him that day was a sad smile.

After Kylo was gone, Hux lay back down. Although what had happened kept him awake for a while, when he finally just focused on where Kylo had touched him, he fell asleep easily.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used this as a reference for the time measurement: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galactic_Standard_Calendar  
> So, four weeks basically means 20 days. :)  
> Thank you for reading! <3
> 
> If you want to help spreading this fic, you could reblog this: https://force-choking.tumblr.com/post/170727744889/together-they-painted-a-picture-from-which-they


End file.
